Education sector seeks increased funding and technology
Universities strive to produce global leaders

Although 90% of Ecuador’s 12.4 million people are literate, the country’s educational leaders agree that better technology, new strategies, revamped curriculums and generously increased budgets are needed to better prepare students for the future.

With 54 universities and numerous undergraduate schools, Ecuador is fundamentally well-prepared to educate its people. It does, however, have obstacles to overcome before it can concretely raise the quality of its educational institutions.

Ecuador’s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Recreation, Juan Cordero, believes that “one of our challenges is creating a correlation between all levels of education in order to better prepare students for the real world. Another is that Ecuador has to launch clear and specific goals in its political agenda and education should be the first one.” The Ministry, whose budget was 9.2% of the national budget in 2001, is expected to receive 11.5% in 2002. (Ecuador’s Constitution stipulates that education should constitute 30% of the national budget, but the country’s current economic difficulties have prevented that from being realized.) To pick up the slack for needed monies, the Ministry has reengineered its own budget by allotting nearly 80% for project expenses and 20% for operations.

Ecuador’s legislature is currently evaluating a new education law designed to improve curriculums of both primary and secondary schools, primarily in the areas of math, science and languages. Minister Cordero’s objectives are to enhance the infrastructure of rural schools, increase the salaries of teachers in remote schools, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Welfare, reestablish a student breakfast and lunch program, having found that such a program is an incentive for students to stay in school. (The program would affect 1.2 million students.)

Another program he is developing underscores reading as a crucial component of education and provides schools with books on themes ranging from national identity and history to literature and tourism. Minister Cordero is also implementing a bonus plan whereby nearly 4,000 teachers will receive $400 to help buy computers and $100 for training; next year the plan should reach about 6,000 more teachers.

For higher levels of education, the legislature recently signed a law creating the National Council on Superior Education (CONESUP), making the council responsible for directing and regulating universities and technical institutes. “Our purpose is to consolidate the higher level education system and ensure that these organizations are providing qualitative programs that serve the needs of the current internationalized world,” explains Vinicio Baquero, President. CONESUP would also be in charge of creating and implementing an accreditation system to rank the 54 universities and 350 technical institutes that the legislature currently reviews. Mr. Baquero believes that such a system will encourage exchange programs with foreign universities because it will help create international education standards.

Santiago Gangotena, President and a founding member of Universidad San Francisco, is concerned that this accreditation system might lead to additional controls and regulations and potentially generate corruption in a system already hampered by bureaucracy and obsolete educational practices. He says that the primary reason for the founding of Universidad San Francisco was the realization that Ecuador was in need of a liberal arts university following the model of liberal arts universities in the United States.

Sixty-five percent of education in Ecuador is public, while 35% is private. The private sector is very competitive and universities are often founded on the premise that students must be well-educated to meet the challenges of emerging global trends. A group of Ecuadorian entrepreneurs and educators founded Universidad del Pacifico because they believed that Ecuador needed a university specializing in business providing a curriculum on par with those of the most prestigious business schools in the world. (The university has established alliances with universities in the Asian-Pacific Rim.) The University’s rector, Sonia Roca, declares that “our focus is to form business leaders ready to work for the economic development of Ecuador within the context of globalization.”

Universidad del Pacifico offers degrees in business administration, economy, technology, environmental sciences administration, languages, and other areas. “There are more than 35 companies created by students from University that are contributing to Ecuador’s economic growth,” says Ms. Roca, whose goal is to graduate students with broad vision and understanding of the many levels of competitiveness in today’s corporate world.

Because university costs have been steadily increasing, in1999 Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja formed a strategic alliance with Globatel to provide interactive distance learning throughout the country. According to Kurt Freund, a founding member of Globatel and Universidad del Pacifico, this virtual education network allows for mass dissemination of high-quality education and makes optimal use of available resources. Using the latest technology, the alliance has presented seminars in conjunction with multilateral organizations such as the World Bank and the Organization of American States to provide a venue for the exchange of knowledge between experts from these organizations and students from remote areas of Ecuador on topics such as emerging global trends.

Marcelo Fernandez, Rector of the Universidad Internacional del Ecuador, believes it is important that within their curriculum students receive education incorporating the values defining total quality management — respect, dignity, punctuality, integrity, efficiency and productivity.
To enhance the quality of education in Ecuador, most universities are promoting exchange programs with countries worldwide and are seeking ventures with international organizations and private corporations to create research and development programs.